— from Susan Malins, Kim Secunda, Katie Wilkins, B. Sadie Bailey, and Tracey Levine —
Dear County Council Members:
We request that San Juan County Council meet with the Port of Orcas Commissioners and Interim Executive Director in public session on Orcas within the next few weeks. The public purpose of this meeting is for citizens to be provided an information session and updated progress report on the Orcas Airport Master Plan, which has not been provided to the public since September.
Last fall the Port Master Plan process specified there would be a period of several weeks beginning in January 2019 for public comment about the alternative selected and planned for by the Port (to date unrevealed).There has been no such public process, although according to news coverage and the Port website March 2019 is the completion date for the Master Plan.
Clarity and communication regarding which alternative is viable, and details on that implementation, are essential for this public process. We feel it important that the will of the people be represented and respected by the elected representatives.
We advise that County Council have the draft master plan chapters and all preferred plan figure drawings (including all latest updates) available at this public session.
Please place this letter in the record in perpetuity, and thank you for representing the people of San Juan County.
UPDATE: Original list of signers has been updated to include: Susan Malins, Kim Secunda, Katie Wilkins, B. Sadie Bailey and Tracey Levine
Hear Here! I wish to be considered a signer to this letter.
I am adding my name to this request also.
I am adding my name to this request also.
I am also adding my name to this request.
I am adding my name also
K. Secunda
Include my name
I am also adding my name to this request
Please add my name to this request.
This letter gives the impression that I and Tracey Levine are the authors of it; we weren’t, and I can’t take credit for this excellent letter. I helped edit what was a collaborative effort. I gave permission to have my signature on it because I believe that this discourse is needed. It is heartening to see that other people are adding their names, too.
Thank you B. Sadie for the clarification. I also add my name to this important op-ed and call for action.
For the sake of fact and clarity, it is a fine example of a group effort.
I am also adding my name to this request.
Please add my name and Heather’s name to this letter. Residents of Orcas need to be made aware of the significant impacts of the proposed airport master plan.
Greg and Heather Oaksen
Yes: Please add my name to this request. The new Master Plan will affect all of us who live on Orcas. We need to be kept well informed by our commissioners, who do not seem to be prioritizing providing the public with accurate, timely information at all.
While I’m not opposed to such a meeting, I’m not sure of its purpose. Does the SJ County Council has any authority over the actions of the elected Port Authority Commissioners?
To be fair – there have been personnel changes for commission seats and the Port manager role, even though Mr. Simpson appears to be staying on indefinitely in some capacity. These changes, and the records requests we have made to try to understand the scope of the Master Plan (MP), are all factors in slowing down the MP unveiling. The Public is only allowed to make records requests to the Port – not to DOWL consultant – so there has been much secrecy in what we can know; hence the records requests – to try to find out.
When the Final Draft Plan is released, the public will have 21 days to read the thing and comment. How many of us will have time or the knowledge to read and understand a document that long and complex?
Please attend the next regular Port Meeting scheduled tentatively for April 11th, when the 3 contenders for Dwight Guss’s commisssion seat vacancy will also be at the meeting. Once this seat is filled, things may move along very quickly. We want the public to be vetted.
I share others interest in the Port of Orcas’s master plan for the airport. However, it is important to point out that the County Council has little to do with the Port’s Master Plan. The Port is a completely separate public entity separate from San Juan County.
Responsibility for the Port and its master plan sits squarely on the shoulders of the Port’s two elected commissioners and those recently appointed to replace two commissioners who resigned in January. The County Council has plenty of their own planning on their plate, like moving the Comprehensive Plan forward.
Hopefully our Port Commissioners will seek to incorporate into their Master Plan the sentiment of their Orcas constituents, and not just the desires of the FAA, and the commercial operators that use the airport.
Port Commissioners, thank you for your service. Please hear we are anxious for a status report on the Port’s master plan.
While the Port does wield a great deal of power and authority, the Port is also party and subject to State and local provisions in place to serve the community, in not creating unsafe or incompatible conditions “to” the existing community. The Port is very important to every member of this community, in terms of keeping our populations safe for transportation and port of entry for various needs. However it appears as the planning team didn’t properly vet the needs of the existing community in planning for its own infrastructure as it relates to the circulation of the surrounding community. Instead the plans as prepared rolled out onto the neighbors in incompatible ways. turning a historically and privately owned residential community that is Sea View street into a dead end transportation industry Hub, and further dissecting a large portion of the community that is Mount Baker Road, from its west side or the entire west end of Mount Baker road. We already on Orcas island have limited road infrastructure for escape routes in case of emergency. Bringing further development into the tiny center of this island is damningly in the face of many transportation industry guidelines.
I am adding my name to this request as well. Knowledge is power.